How AI is pushing NFL draft prep to 'a different level' - ESPN

Ohio State safety Caleb Downs presents the kind of NFL draft riddle that scouts and executives have puzzled over for decades.

He was an undeniably outstanding player during his college career, twice earning All-America honors while winning the Jim Thorpe trophy as the best defensive back in the country during his final season as a Buckeye. But he opted against running the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine and his pro day, leaving draft evaluators to ponder a basic and important question: How fast is he?

NFL teams have historically used game film evaluations, in-person scouting and conversations with college coaches to help answer that question. This year, some clubs will apply an additional tool: artificial intelligence.

• Which WRs have the best Playmaker scores?
• Which RBs have the best BackCAST scores?
• Which Edges have the best SackSEER scores?
• Which QBs have the best QBASE 2.0 scores?

Insights derived from computer analysis of game film are among the first meaningful applications of a technology that is upending industries around the globe. NFL teams can access AI via the league's partnership with Microsoft, as well as a number of other private companies that provide platforms.

Amid widespread fears that AI will consume human jobs, pro football is in its earliest stages of experimentation. Team executives who spoke with ESPN about their use of artificial intelligence to evaluate prospects and make draft-day decisions believe it will be integrated over time, just as they gradually accepted data provided by the analytics movement over the past two decades.

But AI doesn't simply provide data, they acknowledged.

«Analytics allowed us to gather so much information,» said Rob Brzezinski, the Minnesota Vikings' interim